The Ultimate OSRS P2P Hunter Training Guide (1-99)

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Crack open a cold one and don your camouflage. We’re heading for the wilds with a look at Hunter training in OSRS. 

Most of OldSchool RuneScape revolves around mortal combat, legendary quests, and occasionally cutting wood or crafting clay bowls. When you want a break from all that adrenaline-pumping, death-defying action, what’s an adventurer like you supposed to do?

Farming? Psssh. That’s a pastime for big wusses and lesser wimps. And Herblore is for those folks who’d rather drink suspicious herbs instead of growing them. Real heroes spend their downtime tracking across the frozen tundra, building magnificent birdhouses, and unleashing a trained falcon on unsuspecting kebbits. That’s right — it’s time to talk about RuneScape’s most famous skill-you-never-bothered-to-level, Hunter. 

The High Ground Gaming OSRS Hunter Training Guide starts after the break. 

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OSRS Heroes’ Quest Complete Guide

Hunter Training OSRS: Snares Aren’t Just for Drummers

Hunting is a skill you develop by doing. But you won’t just be handed a falcon and sent on your way. You have to prove yourself first. Work your way up the career ladder, as it were. And step one is to dress for the job you want and stuff a few nooses in your briefcase. 

Any equipment that reduces weight is going to be your friend. Hunter involves roaming to the far-flung reaches of Gielinor in search of prey on foot. That extra bit of run energy is going to add up. While you’re at it, consider adding a few energy potions or strange fruit and teleport runes to your inventory to make it even easier on yourself. As we discuss Hunter locations, we’ll highlight the nearest bank and the best shortcut to get there.  

There are two Hunter shops in OSRS as of this writing: Aleck’s Hunter Emporium in Yanille and the Nardah Hunter Shop. Both offer the core Hunter toolkit in the form of noose wands, bird snares, butterfly nets, teasing sticks, and box traps. We’ll get to the more exotic Hunter items later; for now, pick up a few of each of these core items. Especially the ones that you can run multiple of like the bird snares, box traps, and rabbit snares. They’re cheap, so it never hurts to have a few extra.

We’re going to cover each step of the grind in turn as we get to them, but a bird’s eye view of the climb to level 99 Hunter can be seen below.

Ironman Hunter training may require some substitutions, though fortunately, not many. The quests involved are minimal in terms of requirements and time investments — note that to access Fossil Island for birdhouse runs, you’ll need to complete both The Dig Site and Bone Voyage as well as earn some kudos. The only significant concerns are whether you can get the items you’ll need, like the clockworks for birdhouses, which require a crafting table 2 in your player-owned house. Other than that, you’ll be good to go. 

Now it’s time for your first Hunter training OSRS challenge — tracking kebbits in the frosty north. 

Quiet, I’m Hunting Kebbits 

• Hunter Tools: Noose wand
• Nearest Bank: Seers’ Village
• Fast Travel Option: Camelot Teleport

Northeast of the Fremennik settlement of Rellekka lies a rocky shore and a small glacier. Frigid winds tumble snow into deep drifts across the surface — yet despite the cold, life abounds. Kebbits make homes here, nestled in hollows where they can shelter from the elements. The cerulean warbler bird rides the icy winds alongside a few species of butterfly, and the prowling kyatt keeps local kebbit populations in check.

It’s time to break out your noose wand and help in your own way by tracking some kebbits. And you’ll start the same way any good Hunter does — with a bit of legwork. On the glacier, you’ll find a variety of hidey-holes perfectly suited to the diminutive kebbits. Fallen logs, snowdrifts, and tunnels invite you to inspect them, and if you’re lucky, you’ll find some tracks and the start of a trail. Use the visual clues provided and cast your net wide to uncover each set of tracks in turn until you find where your prey is hiding.

Once you’ve reached the end of the trail, simply use your noose wand on the hiding place. 

You’ll be rewarded with some bones, kebbit meat, and a bit of kebbit fur. There you go! Your first Hunter trophy. Track down another thirty-eight of the little fluffy guys, and you’ll be Level 10 Hunter. Then it’s time to snare some birds.

A Bird in the Snare is Worth Two in the Air

• Hunter Tools: Bird snare (2), butterfly net (1), butterfly jar (1+)
• Nearest Bank: Shayzien
• Fast Travel Option: Xeric’s Talisman

The copper longtail is our next target. If you’re worried about banking, you may want to consider tackling this step in the Kourend Woodland Hunter area, otherwise bring 50gp and pay the fee to enter the Piscatoris Hunter area. Wherever you end up, just make sure to bring a butterfly net and jars in addition to your snares. Snares are not destroyed in use — but if they idle for too long, they’ll “fall over” and become an item on the ground where they can despawn. As long as you keep an eye on things, two should be enough to get you through, running one at a time until you can place both starting at Level 20. 

The best place to set up a snare for Hunter training OSRS is amid a group of birds. Clever placement will minimize the amount of time you spend waiting for one to wander over. You’ll know something’s about to happen when one of them “locks on” to the snare and swoops over for a closer look. 

If you’re unlucky, it will trip the snare then fly again unharmed. Simply dismantle and reset the trap in that case. Otherwise, you’ll see the bird hanging upside down, waiting to be retrieved. Check the trap to get some bones, raw bird meat, and feathers, then set up the snare again for the next one. Once you reach Level 15, you can add ruby harvest butterflies into the mix.

Both copper longtail areas have ruby harvests nearby and generally slightly northwest. For maximum efficiency, place your snares, then run over with butterfly net in hand to catch a few while you wait. Just remember to watch for messages indicating your snares fell over. If you want to keep some of the butterflies for the friendly Attack buff, bring that many jars plus one, so you can practice catch-and-release. 

At Level 27, it’s time for Eagles’ Peak.

Zoology

• Items required: 50gp, Swamp tar (1), Yellow dye (1)

Eagles’ Peak is one of only a handful of quests that include the Hunter skill as a requirement, and the first to do so. While questing is normally a pleasant diversion alongside a Level 99 grind, this particular quest unlocks one of the Hunter techniques we’ll be using later, as well as a bit of XP and the Eagle transport system to get you around the world a little faster. 

This isn’t a quest guide, though, so we’ll keep it short and sweet: head to the Ardougne Zoo and talk to Charlie the zookeeper to start it. You’ll end up helping a huntsman make an eagle suit, solve a puzzle, and catch a ferret in roughly that order. And you’ll be left at a comfy Level 29 Hunter on completion.

Swamp Lizards of Unusual Size

• Hunter Tools: Ropes (3), small fishing nets (3)
• Nearest Bank: Canifis
• Fast Travel Option: N/A

Your next task when it comes to Hunter Training OSRS is to net swamp lizards in Morytania, and fortunately for you, these are one of the most bank-accessible Hunter creatures yet. From the town of Canifis, the Hunter area is just a bit east. Use your fishing nets on the young trees in the swamp and catch yourself a few (hundred) lizards. 

If you really want to min/max, you can bring guam tar and a torch with you to buff the chance of catching a lizard, but the net gain is minimal. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else in the area for a Hunter to do, so just kick back with some Netflix and watch the swamp lizards roll in. This little grind is well worth it — at Level 43, you can take part in a little falconry. 

Swoop in Out of Nowhere

• Hunter Tools: N/A
• Nearest Bank: Tree Gnome Stronghold
• Fast Travel Option: N/A

Who would’ve thought that getting your very own hunting falcon would only cost 500gp?

In the Piscatoris falconry area, you can unleash your own special flavor of feathered hell on three rare varieties of kebbit: spotted, dark, and dashing. After renting the falcon and falconer’s glove from Matthias, simply click on the kebbit whose day you want to ruin. The falcon will handle the rest.

Like the bird snares, you’ll have to retrieve the kebbit once the falcon has caught it. At first, you’ll just be targeting the spotted kebbits. But once you hit Levels 57 and 69, you can also falcon punch the dark and dashing kebbits, respectively. Spend some time watching the circle of life turn, and once you hit Level 73 Hunter, you’ve got a bit of a fork in the road. 

The Fork in the Road for Hunter Training OSRS

• Hunter Tools: Red Salamanders – 4 Net traps / Black Chinchompas – 5 Box traps
• Nearest Bank: Red Salamanders – Ardougne / Black Chinchompas – Edgeville
• Fast Travel Option: Red Salamanders – Ardougne / Black Chinchompas – N/A

This is the part of the Hunter Training OSRS Guide where there’s a fork in the road. How much danger can you stomach? For late-game Hunter grinding, some of the best XP (aside from birdhouses — don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten) can be found trapping black chinchompas with the box traps you unlocked for completing Eagle’s Peak. Only one problem — they’re located deep in the Wilderness, just southeast of the Lava Maze. Not exactly an ideal Hunter training spot. 

However, the Wilderness has another trick up its sleeve. You can place one additional hunting trap relative to the usual number per your level. That means five instead of four at a time, and that means faster XP. But can you stomach the ever-lurking threat of player killers? 

Perhaps not. In which case, the red salamanders of the Ourania Hunter area may offer the preferred balance of safety and XP. Just take note: black chinchompas require box traps, while red salamanders are caught with net traps like the swamp lizards.

“But wait,” we hear you cry. “You still haven’t talked about birdhouse runs! What gives?”

 Actually, we have covered them in detail. But it was in another guide, so of course we’re going to cover it again here.

House of Birds

For a detailed look, consult the High Ground Gaming Birdhouse Guide.

First up, you’ll need to complete Bone Voyage. After that, the avian fruits of Fossil Island are yours for the taking. 

Birdhouse runs are perhaps the fastest Hunter training method from top to bottom. You could theoretically switch from polar kebbits to birdhouses once you hit Level 5 and make the run to 99 comfortably on birdhouses alone. But we’re all about variety here at High Ground Gaming. So as with all things, feel free to tailor your grind to your particular situation and tastes. 

We cover birdhouse runs in detail in the guide linked above, so we won’t repeat ourselves here. See? We told you we’d get to birdhouses. 

Hunter Training OSRS: The Hunt is On

That’s wraps up our Hunter Training OSRS Guide! You tracked kebbits, snared birds, netted lizards, and released the falcon. And you probably assembled more birdhouses than you can count. All in a day’s work for a Level 99 Hunter. Congratulations!

We’ll see you in the next guide. 

Related Reading

• P2P Woodcutting Guide
• P2P Firemaking Guide
• OSRS P2P Crafting Guide
• P2P Mining Guide
• P2P Runecrafting Guide